I actually spend a lot of time in iowa. I do conventions there (usually des moines) a few times a year. and I always seem to stop, eat and gas up in Muscatine. my wife is from the giant metropolis of Fairfield, iowa (actually...the smaller town just west of that, Batavia). it is beautiful country out there. in fact, the view out their front door overlooks rolling hills that look like it belongs in a package of butter. it's funny...my wife picks up a little of a local accent here...and when she goes back home...everyone thinks she talks funny. but when she comes home...it takes her days to shed her iowa accent. anyway...a friendlier group of people you will not find. I even notice myself raising a hand in hello to passers by after being there for a few days...even when I come back home.

I want to tell her that I love her a lot, but I got to get a belly full of wine.

I grew up with the Beatles. After the break, I started listening to other acts. RAM brought me back to McCartney. I always liked his voice the best of the Fab 4. I heard RAM and was blown away. That did it for me. Wild Life was so so. Red Rose Rose Speedway I liked. BOTR I loved. V & M kept it going. The when I saw him during WOA tour I was hooked forever. I remember a buddy and me driving over to Cincy from Indy without tickets to the show. Probably the best of all the shows I've seen him. I haven't looked back since.

I've enjoyed other tours more of Paul's than the WOA one-- mainly because of the additional Beatles songs, especially including "The End" and the over-the-top crazy, never ending guitar jamming that closed nearly every show from the '89 tour till now.

However, NOTHING beats the opening of the Wings Over America tour. I saw the two shows at Madison Square Garden, and when the lights went down, and the opening chords of "Venus & Mars" began playing in the total darkness (although you could see feint silhouettes of the band if you looked hard enough), the goose bump meter went off the charts. I was 18 at the time, and went to see the show with a good friend of mine, driving the 200-plus miles down Rt. 17 (it's Rt. 86, now) from Horseheads, New York.Then, when the song exploded into "Rock Show," and the lights went up, and there was...well...there was f***ing PAUL f***ing McCartney standing there, playing bass, and SINGING just a hundred or so feet away from me...the rush of that moment will never, EVER be duplicated. I am not ashamed to say that I was so overcome with emotion at that point, tears ran down my cheeks. If someone had asked me my name, I wouldn't have been able to say a word. My mouth might have moved, but nothing would have come out.

I was a Beatles FANATIC at that point, and Paul was my guy (and has been forevermore), and that was one of the highlights of my life at that moment. And remains one of them to this day, over 35 years later.

in years to come/they may discover/what the air we breathe and the life we lead are all about/but it won't be soon enough for me

I was 11 years old, living in Muskegon, Michigan and going to St. Francis De Sales Catholic School and it was a FREEZING February. I saw them on The Ed Sullivan Show and begged my mom to stay up and watch. I had heard The Beatles before The Ed Sullivan Show Debut and fell in Absolute Love with Paul McCartney. The Beatles came on and their names appeared under their faces and I yelled at my mom THERE HE IS!! She said he was cute.

Those Bedroom Eyes. Those kissable lips. That voice. That charm. I was hooked like most little girls my age. Fast Forward to 2013 and I am still hooked for basically the same things but I now like the music and the way he sings the lyrics. I saw him in 1976 in Largo, MD. I saw him 7 times in 1989-90 in various cities and the last time in 2002 in Washingtion, DC with 2001 being the highlight of my years.

He came to the State Department April 19, 2001 with She Who Must Not Be Named and I was invited to the Secretary's office by a friend and when he came out of Colin Powell's Office, I heard myself ask for an autograph. We stood shoulder to shoulder and I was silent. My friend talked to him, telling him of my passion for him and his music and he said I had good taste. He kept Colin Powell waiting in the elevator. I said "Thank You" and shook his hand. I was dumbfounded. He walked to the elevator doors and they closed and my knees buckled. I went back to my office and showed everyone. It was 9:30 a.m. and I told my Director he would get no work from me that day. And he didn't. I walked around the whole building showing everyone I knew the autograph.

My Deputy Director called the PR office and got a press photo that appeared in the Washington Post that day and I now have it and the autograph framed and a proveance from the Dep. Dir. I called a local radio station to request a song and the DJ asked me if I was that lady who met Paul McCartney? I was friends with an on air personality at that station and called her and told her and the one who asked if I had met him, said I sounded genuine.

That and being in a crowd scene in 1990 at Foxboro Stadium watching him and the band lip sync to music and jamming in between takes are the highlights of my life . . . .so far. AMAZING JAM SESSIONS.

Although I DID have a fairly close encounter with John Lennon once. Literally very close. As in standing a foot or two away from him on line in a store on Columbus Ave. in Manhattan.

I had the (what turned out to be) good sense NOT to talk to him, or ask him for an autograph, or bother him in any way. He was with Yoko, and had his arms filled with stuffed animals (presumably for Sean-- this was around 1978-79), and he piled them on the counter and said to the cashier, "I'll have these boonch," or something like that. I stood directly behind him and Yoko in line, buying a little plastic thing of green Tic Tacs. I said NOTHING. I just took the whole scene in.

My brother, on the other hand, ran into him somewhere locally not much longer after that, and made the mistake of asking him for an autograph. Lennon flatly, and rather rudely, refused him, saying "I don't do those anymore." It crushed my brother for years. I think he's gotten over it by now, but man, that really hurt him, as he was nearly as big a Beatles fan as I was.

I learned a valuable lesson between my encounter and my brother's: let your legends STAY your legends. If you try to make human contact with them, it might end up fine...but it also might end up badly, and scar your impressions and memories forever.

in years to come/they may discover/what the air we breathe and the life we lead are all about/but it won't be soon enough for me

I love all the stories here. Girl4beats amorousness, Mattals in space and never has landed anymore, Mr H's little secret, that damn admiral, mr M from Sweden who still lives in '72, JimQ- a love that should have lasted years...(for no one), efghijhiSheLovesYouYeah hypnotising moment, bravefans WOA, lobby's Red Rose, Chris's discoverings after the vinyl of a hard days night was worn out, bravefans brainwash and my little radio. love to hear more.."is there anybody going to listen to my story'' ....

looking through the backyard of my life, time to sweep the fallen leaves away

My voice was the only voice speaking out in the wilderness of the Secretary's Front Office and since I was the "ONLY" one asking and he had an audience, I think he thought WHY NOT? I would think that if he didn't want to or something, he would have refused, politely, but refused. I had a friend who did that in London and he told the crowd he would love to but there were too many and he didn't want to start something he couldn't finish. He was with Linda at the time. But she got one several days later when she approached him and she and her sister were the only ones around. So he obliged. I guess around that time, John didn't want to be reminded of The Beatles and so he refused.

But Paul "seems" to like to please his fans, if possible. All those tattoos. . . .

That was it for me. Growing up in Oak Park Michigan in the 70's. 1st Grade they showed the Beatles Cartoon re-runs on one of the UHF stations. I loved it! My name is John and the kid across the street was named Paul. When we pretended we were the Beatles, I naturally wanted to be Paul and he wanted to be John. It totally blew my mind when my Mom told me they were REAL PEOPLE who made real music!I got the Beatles "Red Album" for Christmas that year and it's been a life long love ever since. I'll turn 43 on Monday.